Marussia chief executive Graeme Lowdon admits he is mystified why his team haven’t been offered a commercial deal to continue participating in Formula One.

Bernie Ecclestone has not offered terms to the team which finished 11th in the constructors’ championship last year.

“All teams should be treated equally,” Lowdon told The Times. “For whatever reason, that does not seem to be the case. We just don’t have a deal with the commercial rights-holder.”

“Why should that be? This sport is full of strange mysteries and that is one of them.”

Ecclestone announced in April only the top ten teams would receive payments as of this year. HRT, who finished 12th in the championship last year, went into administration over the winter.

Lowdon questioned the decision of F1 owners CVC to tilt the playing field against the smallest teams: “That board has to make a decision on how it treats companies it deals with. We are one of those companies, and it chooses to treat us differently. It doesn’t make any sense to me, but then I don’t work for CVC. Maybe they have a master plan.”

“All we ask for is a level playing field,” he added.

Marussia first entered Formula One in 2010 when the team was owned by Virgin Group tycoon Richard Branson. Russian sports car manufacturer Marussia later bought his stake in the team.